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Ignis-quis-vir's Proto-Language
My phonology for Redwars I really hope you like your phonology (or at least don't hate it). If you have questions about certain processes/stuff feel free to ask me and I'll try and help you. Good luck for the challenge! Vowels Monophthongs Your language only possesses the 3 vowel morphemes /a/, /i/ and /u/. However, many more vowels are used because of various vowel mutations. Mutations occur only in syllables which are followed by a stressed syllables. Diphthongs The following diohthongs exist in your language: /ai̯/, /au̯/, /ei̯/ and /ou̯/. These diphthongs are also subject to mutations. Consonants The nasal /n/ is asimmilated to the following plosive; it turns into m when a bilabial plosive follow or into ŋ when a velar plosive is following. The unvoiced plosives can be aspirated or not; usually they are aspirated when they are alone and they are not aspirated when they are in a syllable cluster. All plosive are palatalized if they are followed by a unrounded front vowel; the following vowels belong to this group: */i/ - only these realisations: i, ɛ */a/ - only these realisations: e */ai̯/ - only these realisations: ɛi̯ */au̯/ - only these realisations: ɛu̯ */ei̯/ Phonotactics The syllable structure of your language strictly follows the "Sonority Sequencing Principle" (SSP). This means that every sound has a sonority level assigned to it and all syllables are build up like "a mountain"; e.g., the onset is rising in sonority, the nucleus is the peak of the sonority and the coda is declining in sonority. The sonority levels are (with 1 being the highest and 8 the lowest): #Vowels & Diphthongs - /a/, /i/, /u/, /ai̯/, /au̯/, /ei̯/ and /ou̯/ #Approximants - only /j/ #Liquids - /r/ and /l/ #Nasals - /n/ #Voiced fricatives - /v/, /ð/, /z/ and /ʒ/ #Voiceless fricatives - /ɸ/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/ and /x/ #Voiced plosives - /b/, /d/ and /g/ #Voiceless plosives - /p/, /t/ and /k/ Based on that, you can build up your syllables. Syllables have to resemble the mountain and therefore they have to have an onset, a nucleus and a coda (CVC or CVVC). Both the onset and the coda can be expanded and contain two consonants as long as ... *they do not break the SSP *they have the same voice (only for combinations of fricatives and plosives) */n/ and /l/ don't follow an alveolar plosive Important to note is that sounds cannot form a plateau - so two sounds of the same sonority level cannot occur next to each other (at least within morpheme boundaries). Additionally, the last consonant of a syllable is always the first consonant of the following syllable. Stress The stress is usually on the second syllable (S2) of a word stem. However, the stress can shift to either the first syllable (S1) or the third syllable (S3) in certain situations. If S2 is light (CVC)* and S1 or S3 is heavy (CVC© or CVV or CVVC©) the stress shifts to the heavy syllable. In case both S1 and S3 are heavy, the stress is always on S1. * = A syllable CVC is considered light because the last consonant is also part of the next syllable. Only word-initial or medial CVC syllables are light; word-final CVC are always heavy. Your own decisions Since you are going to work with this phonology, you can make minor adjustments to the phonology, e.g.: *You could switch out i, y and u for ɪ, ʏ and ʊ if you want to - or you could have free variation between the them etc. Your choice! *You can add additional consonant clusters which are not allowed - I like this better than you just simply "overlooking" a certain cluster that is theoretically possible but which you just don't want to use *You can add the vowel phoneme /ə/ for a bit more margin; or you could have ə as an allophone of /a/ in unstressed syllables which are not affected by a vowel mutation *As the rules of the challenge say, all sandhi effects are up to you but I think they should still be "logical" and not break the SSP Category:Languages Category:Proto-Lang Challenge